Porn star Stormy Daniels has alleged she became so angry upon first meeting Donald Trump she spanked the then businessman and TV presenter on the bottom with a magazine – but she did allegedly have sex with him.
Ms Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is at the centre of the former US president’s hush money trial.
She began her testimony on Tuesday (US time).
Mr Trump is accused of covering up payments of $200,000 ($US130,000) linked to extramarital affairs with Ms Daniels, 45, in the run up to the 2016 US Presidential election.
The prosecution is trying to frame the alleged payments as election interference.
Mr Trump has denied an affair took place.
Along with fixer Michael Cohen, and potentially Mr Trump himself, Ms Daniels is one of the star witnesses.
For most of her testimony Mr Trump did not look at Ms Daniels on but rather watched her through a TV screen.
Ms Daniels, who said she got into the adult entertainment industry aged 23, said she met Mr Trump at a golf tournament at Lake Tahoe, in California 150km east of Sacramento, in July 2006.
“It was a very brief encounter,” she said.
The tournament was being sponsored by the porn company she worked for. She had been due to attend a dinner with other staff from the company but her publicist suggested she have dinner with Mr Trump instead.
Ms Daniels said she met Mr Trump in his Lake Tahoe suite.
“I didn’t really have any expectations,” she said.
When she arrived she said Mr Trump, 77, was wearing silk or sating pyjamas in the style of Playboy magazine publisher Hugh Hefner.
“Does Mr Hefner know you stole his pyjamas?” Ms Daniels said she asked.
She told him to change which she said he did into a shirt and pants.
‘Don’t worry about Melania’
Mr Trump suggested they talk, she told the jurors, “to get to know each other”.
She said he asked if she had a partner or children, which she did not.
Ms Daniels, who has directed adult films as well as acted in Hollywood movies including the 40-Year-Old Virgin and hosted a podcast, said she mentioned Melania Trump who he had married a year earlier in 2005.
“Oh, what about your wife?” Ms Daniels said she asked Mr Trump.
“He said, ‘Don’t worry about that, we don’t even sleep in the same room,’” she alleged.
At one point, Mr Trump showed her a financial magazine which he was on the cover of. She told him she hadn’t seen it.
“Not like I made a habit of reading financial magazines as a 27-year-old stripper,” she told the jury.
‘Spanked’ Mr Trump
She said she became exasperated with Mr Trump’s “arrogance” in the meeting and that he was acting “pretty nasty”.
“Are you always this rude?” he asked.
She then said she snapped,” and looked at the magazine.
“I said, ‘Someone should spank you with that.”
Then Ms Daniel’s said: “I took it and turned him around and swatted him right on the butt”.
Ms Daniels said she went to the toilet in his penthouse and when he came out, Mr Trump was on the bed in boxer shorts and a T-shirt.
“I felt the blood leave my hands and my feet almost like if you stand up too fast.
“I thought, ‘oh my God, what did I misread to get here?’
“At first I was just startled, like a jump scare. I wasn’t expecting someone to be there, especially minus a lot of clothing.”
Ms Daniels continued that, “the intent was pretty clear”.
“He stood up between me and the door. Not in a threatening manner. Nothing like that,” she said.
“There was an imbalance of power for sure. He was bigger and blocking the way. I was not threatened verbally or physically”.